"Three years later I'm at a wedding reception for a friend who still works for Roger. And Roger's there. So we're chatting and kidding around, and I said, 'Ah, man, remember that "Wizards of the Lost Kingdom" movie?' And he said, 'Oh, y'know, that did very well in video. We filmed a sequel!'"
— Ed Naha, writer of Wizards of the Lost Kingdom
One of the many Heroic Fantasy films produced by Roger Corman to capitalize on the popularity of fantasy films in The '80s, Wizards Of The Lost Kingdom 2 is, shockingly enough, a Sequel to Wizards of the Lost Kingdom. Unshockingly, given this -is- a Corman picture, this film is a sequel In Name Only, lacking any common characters or frame of reference to the original film apart from some Stock Footage in the opening credits and the fact that both movies center around Child Mage protagonists.
The basic plot sees Caedmon—a shepherd and reportedly last of the good wizards—sent off in search of Tyor, The Chosen One who will defeat the three evil wizards who have taken control of The Three Great Powers Of Creation. It stars Sid Haig and David Carradine.
Wizards Of The Lost Kingdom 2 was—like its predecessor—apparently created in an effort to craft a more family-friendly film. And just like the original, a goodly portion of the movie featured heavily edited Stock Footage from several of Roger Corman's adult fantasy films—particularly The Warrior and the Sorceress and Barbarian Queen, with a few clips from Amazons and Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans. The movie also lifts the plot of the original Deathstalker to boot!
Miraculously, this movie had the budget to rehire David Carradine (The titular warrior from The Warrior and the Sorceress) and Lana Clarkson (the titular Barbarian Queen of Barbarian Queen) to film new linking scenes in an effort to tie Stock Footage from their earlier films into the main story. It's debatable how successful they were in the end but at least some effort was made.
In 2017 it was included in the revival of Mystery Science Theater 3000. For tropes pertaining to that episode, see here.
This film provides examples of:
- AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle: Tyor threatens to "skoo-er" Freya.
- Action Girl:
- Amethea, the only one of the three warriors who doesn't have to be rescued or pressured into fighting to save the three kingdoms.
- Idun, The Dark One's wife. She does a fine job handling the drunks who get too touchy-feely when she's dancing and snaps a guard's neck between her thighs.
- All-Powerful Bystander: Vanir, the master of Caedmon, who sends him off to find Tyor and spends the rest of the movie bailing them both out of trouble.
- And the Adventure Continues: The movie ends with Tyor and Caedmon being sent on another quest by Vanir.
- Big Good: The great wizard Vanir, who Ascended To A Higher Plane long ago. He appears to Caedmon and sends him off to find and train Tyor to defeat the three Evil Sorcerers. He also appears again at the end when the heroes start bickering over who's going to rule the newly created kingdom, setting them all straight.
- Birthmark of Destiny: Tyor has one which marks him as The Chosen One.
- Body Horror: The spell Tyor casts to enlarge the muscles in his arm would come off as this if it weren't so
obviously fake. - The Chosen One: Tyor. Officially he's a magical prodigy and the only one who can recover the Powers of Creation. Unofficially, he is...
- The Chosen Zero:
- Far from the paragon of virtue promised by the prophecy, Tyor acts like a real Hormone-Addled Teenager. If it weren't for Vanir stepping in whenever Tyor screwed-up, he'd have died ten times over.
- Also Caedmon - the last of the good wizards, who had the role of finding The Chosen One thrust upon him because he was literally the only good wizard left.
- Covers Always Lie: Just like the original.
- Dance Battler: Idun is a dancing girl who uses her dance moves in combat.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Despite his ominous-sounding name, the Dark One is one of the heroes.
- Denser and Wackier: The film takes on a somewhat more comical tone than its predecessor.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The Dark One ends an argument between two patrons in his bar by hurling a throwing knife into one guy's chest, killing him.
- Distracted by the Sexy: While Caedmon is being menaced by a werewolf in a dungeon, Tyor just goes back to ogling the girls in the nearby cage.Tom Servo: Tyor, do you even care that a werewolf is, like, killing your friend?
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Dark One, whose actual name is unknown and, ironically enough, he is working as a barkeep when Caedmon seeks him out.
- Evil Sorcerer: Three of them - Loki, Donar and Zarz. They rule the kingdoms with an iron fist but only Loki performs any real sorcery.
- Family-Friendly Stripper: The Dark One's wife, who dances in a skimpy leather bikini for tips at his bar.
- Fanservice: Quite a bit of it for a nominally family-friendly film.
- Idun - the Family-Friendly Stripper at The Dark One's tavern.
- Amethea in her Stripperiffic armor.
- Freya - the slinky seductress in Donar's castles.
- Flynning: Every single sword fight.
- Funny Background Event: After Tyor turns Zarz's crystal ball into a roast chicken the general spends the rest of the confrontation snacking on it.
- Handsome Lech: Prince Erman, who makes sure that each maiden gets a kiss as he "saves" them from Loki's dungeon.
- Happy Ending Override: The prologue's attempts to tie this film to the first one mostly consists of letting us know everything those heroes did was All for Nothing, as the kingdoms went to war again and they were all killed.
- If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Donar and Zarz try to win Tyor over to the path of evil by having him kill Donar. The movie then promptly forgets about this, and Tyor kills both of them with no issue. He'd already killed Loki before this.note
- Inept Mage:
- Tyor starts out as one. His first attempt at squeezing blood from a turnip yields chicken soup. He becomes better but still has to have his hand held by Vanir and told what to do every step of the way.
- Caedmon fails at turning straw into gold, creating a pile of dung instead. It's vaguely implied he used to be a more competent magician, but presumably he's allowed his skills to atrophy over the years.
- Informed Ability: We're told that Tyor's noble and pure spirit is the key to fighting the evil wizards. Given that he seems more interested in ogling dancing girls at the tavern and flirting with the maidens he's meant to be rescuing while a werewolf attacks his mentor...
- I Surrender, Suckers: The Dark One gets himself captured as a plot to go fight the Protector. Unfortunately the fight itself got cut from the MST3K version of the film.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: What would happen to Tyor if he failed the If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him! test. According to Caedmon, if Tyor simply decides to kill Donar, he'll immediately become 100% evil and join Donar instead of killing him. Killing Zarz, on the other hand, apparently has no moral implications whatsoever.
- Knight's Armor Hideout: When Tyor's chased by Donar's guards, he hides inside a suit of armor on display. Then, in the suit of armor, he points down the hall and tells the guards that the kid they're chasing went that-a-way, and the guards fall for it.
- MacGuffin: The Three Powers Of Creation—a magic amulet, sword, and chalice that Tyor needs to defeat the evil sorcerers. They really don't help him all that much save for Tyor ultimately discovering that Throwing Your Sword Always Works.
- Murderous Thighs: Idun kills a guard while sitting on his shoulders, after convincing him to help her down from a wall.
- Norse Mythology: For some reason, the source of most of the character names. Loki, Idun, Freyja, Donar (Germanic Thor), Vanir (which was a group, not an individual), possibly Tyor as Tyr; even Caedmon is the name of the earliest known Anglo-Saxon poet.
- The Obi-Wannabe: Caedmon. Surprisingly (and perhaps, disappointingly), he survives the whole movie. He also doesn't wanna be; when Vanir gives him the job he has long since washed out of wizarding and tries to talk his way out of it.
- Pair the Spares: Prince Erman and Queen Amethea are paired-up at the end, after The Dark One is told by Vanir to decide who should rule the three recently liberated kingdoms.
- Plot Hole: The Weaksauce Weakness of the first movie (most wizards can only use magic in a "place of power") seems to have been dropped completely, with no mention of it as Tyor and Caedmon use magic in various places. Further proof of the movie being a sequel In Name Only.
- Recycled Premise: The plot of Three Great Powers of Creation needing to be reunited to stop the forces of evil is taken from the original Deathstalker.
- Reluctant Hero: Tyor who is finally persuaded to answer the Call To Destiny after his mother convinces him it's better than farming turnips.
- Running Gag: Turning things into chickens, at least partially. Tyor gets chicken soup from a turnip, a rock is turned into a roast chicken (that still tastes like a rock), a crystal ball is turned into a real roast chicken, and finally Caedmon displays that he can perform proper magic in the end by turning a cup of drammel into a live chicken.
- Scooby-Dooby Doors: Donar's men chase Tyor through these at one point.
- Sequel Escalation: This time there's three whole kingdoms that are being endangered by evil wizards!
- Stripperiffic: Amethea's "armor" when she's leading her people to storm Donar's palace.
- Stock Footage: As with the original, there's a fair bit of footage recycled from earlier Corman-produced fantasy films. Some of it's pretty blatant, too: David Carradine is clean-shaven in this film, but has a two-day stubble in the footage from The Warrior and the Sorceress, while Lana Clarkson's outfit here doesn't quite match her costume in Barbarian Queen. It's a lot more integrated into the movie this time, since they planned to do it from the beginning instead of throwing something together at the last minute to pad the running time.
- Stock Punishment: There is a hulking bald prisoner being held in the stocks in Prince Erman's kingdom.He gets freed o join the rebellion, but otherwise plays no part in the movie.
- Taken for Granite: Loki tries to defeat Caedmon and Tyor with the Amulet of Light, his source of power, but is disarmed by the latter and turned to stone with his own weapon.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Tyor dispatches the final evil wizard by casting a spell to buff his strength and then... gently tossing the sword into him.
- Would Hit a Girl: Donar flat-out decks Freya after she fails to seduce or kill Tyor (and delivers a poorly-thought-out quip at Donar's expense).
- Younger Mentor, Older Disciple: At the endof the film, after the evil wizards are dispatched, Tyor receives a new mission from the great wizard Vanir: to re-train Caedmon, his former mentor.
